Lifestyle

Shane Rattenbury, Greens for Molonglo, completes the Lego Challenge

Last night the Greens’ Shane Rattenbury (Molonglo) came down to Duxton to strut show off his lego skills.

Shane’s priorities included: Community gardens, quality landscaping, quality housing, good insulation, a mosque, religious tolerance, cycle paths, a very fast train, a clean lake with live fish and triathlons, gay marriage, a covered canberra stadium in the city centre, new libraries, a new convention centre on the shores of the lake, wind turbines, nature reserves and bio diversity, feral dragons, a trail bike facility, police drone aircraft to end high speed police pursuits.

But don’t take my word for it, he explains all in the video.

The next one is scheduled is the Pirates’ Glen Takkenberg tonight at Zierholz@UC which is a great excuse to check out that newish venue.

What’s Your opinion?

I think community gardens are a great idea. Localised food economies can only be a good thing.

I’m not sure Malthus was wrong, just wrong on dates. The green revolution wasn’t expected. Undoubtably there will be similar ‘green revolutions’. At the end of the day though, the world has a finite carrying capacity. 7 billion people could simply not have the way of life we lucky few do today. It’s not possible. I do see a need for us to step back from the lifestyles we currently maintain. It’s an individual choice and one that more individuals are making. I made mine a few ears back and have been making baby steps. Hopefully I will keep making them until I get to where I want to be.

Population growth tends to grow through a big spurt when infant mortality is tamed, and then fall back when parents feel confident their children have a good chance of living to adulthood, and women let their men know they don’t want to be baby farms. (men tend to like wives with bodies not utterly ravaged by childbirth too)

There’s an established cycle of good medicine creating a population boom followed by birth control creating a downward trending population.

I’d be surprised if the global population goes over 10 bill. It’s certainly not going to be an uncontrolled upward spiral.

I think community gardens are a great idea. Localised food economies can only be a good thing.

I’m not sure Malthus was wrong, just wrong on dates. The green revolution wasn’t expected. Undoubtably there will be similar ‘green revolutions’. At the end of the day though, the world has a finite carrying capacity. 7 billion people could simply not have the way of life we lucky few do today. It’s not possible. I do see a need for us to step back from the lifestyles we currently maintain. It’s an individual choice and one that more individuals are making. I made mine a few ears back and have been making baby steps. Hopefully I will keep making them until I get to where I want to be.

Nonetheless, in my darker moments, I do tend to wonder whether the system we have created has us all rushing towards an inevitable precipice that will see the very catastrophe you warn Truthiness against.

Your comments about how interdependent we are, are in some ways quite scary. We are entirely dependent on the system operating without hiccup, yet in some ways it is quite fragile. When you consider the role debt plays in money creation and wealth production, and the fact that the continual issuance of debt depends on infinite future economic growth for that debt to be paid down, it is a bit worrying to contemplate that many of our economic activities are unsustainable and could hit a wall sometime relatively soon (within a lifetime or two).

The chaos emerging in Spain and Greece are obvious warning of what can happen to an economy that in unable to pay down the debt it has used to fuel its growth. The infinite growth that the current debt-economy relies upon is not guaranteed. Indeed, once you consider the fact we live in a world with a finite capacity to produce resources and absorb waste (seen through such thing as the impacts of climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, etc) continued infinite economic growth seems unlikely in the long term. Once growth is no longer sustainable, debt is no longer payable and the system that relies upon the debt-economy is in serious trouble.

That being said, I’m certainly no advocate of revolutionary upheaval.

An evolution towards resilient local economies that are food and energy dependent, however, would be IMHO a good thing to see.

I’m far from saying everything’s sweet.

But anything other than incremental improvement is wholesale murder.

So let’s think through our increments.

Without our interdependence we’re talking of a die back from 7 billion people to maybe 2 billion.

Every one of those people as entitled to hope and dream as you or I.

However I’m not willing to bet against human ingenuity.

We tend to outlive our problems rather than resolve them.

As I said, evolution, not revolution.

My concern is that die-back could occur without serious focus on evolution. 1 billion people rely on fish as their source of protein, but current management of global fish stocks will see total collapse by 2050. That is going to have to have an impact on population and quality of life. And it’s only one small piece of a much larger puzzle.

People like James Hansen, Jim Lovelock and Jared Diamond are all saying similar things, and all of them are experts in their fields and worth listening to.

To take things down to a more trivial level, I thought the community garden was lovely. (Richard did a lot of that, I think.) As a witness to some of this build, I was impressed by Shane’s ability to talk and Lego at the same time. Some might say it’s a bit like being Speaker and an active Party member at the same time…:-)

Nonetheless, in my darker moments, I do tend to wonder whether the system we have created has us all rushing towards an inevitable precipice that will see the very catastrophe you warn Truthiness against.

Your comments about how interdependent we are, are in some ways quite scary. We are entirely dependent on the system operating without hiccup, yet in some ways it is quite fragile. When you consider the role debt plays in money creation and wealth production, and the fact that the continual issuance of debt depends on infinite future economic growth for that debt to be paid down, it is a bit worrying to contemplate that many of our economic activities are unsustainable and could hit a wall sometime relatively soon (within a lifetime or two).

The chaos emerging in Spain and Greece are obvious warning of what can happen to an economy that in unable to pay down the debt it has used to fuel its growth. The infinite growth that the current debt-economy relies upon is not guaranteed. Indeed, once you consider the fact we live in a world with a finite capacity to produce resources and absorb waste (seen through such thing as the impacts of climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, etc) continued infinite economic growth seems unlikely in the long term. Once growth is no longer sustainable, debt is no longer payable and the system that relies upon the debt-economy is in serious trouble.

That being said, I’m certainly no advocate of revolutionary upheaval.

An evolution towards resilient local economies that are food and energy dependent, however, would be IMHO a good thing to see.

I’m far from saying everything’s sweet.

But anything other than incremental improvement is wholesale murder.

So let’s think through our increments.

Without our interdependence we’re talking of a die back from 7 billion people to maybe 2 billion.

Every one of those people as entitled to hope and dream as you or I.

However I’m not willing to bet against human ingenuity.

We tend to outlive our problems rather than resolve them.

As I said, evolution, not revolution.

My concern is that die-back could occur without serious focus on evolution. 1 billion people rely on fish as their source of protein, but current management of global fish stocks will see total collapse by 2050. That is going to have to have an impact on population and quality of life. And it’s only one small piece of a much larger puzzle.

People like James Hansen, Jim Lovelock and Jared Diamond are all saying similar things, and all of them are experts in their fields and worth listening to.

Nonetheless, in my darker moments, I do tend to wonder whether the system we have created has us all rushing towards an inevitable precipice that will see the very catastrophe you warn Truthiness against.

Your comments about how interdependent we are, are in some ways quite scary. We are entirely dependent on the system operating without hiccup, yet in some ways it is quite fragile. When you consider the role debt plays in money creation and wealth production, and the fact that the continual issuance of debt depends on infinite future economic growth for that debt to be paid down, it is a bit worrying to contemplate that many of our economic activities are unsustainable and could hit a wall sometime relatively soon (within a lifetime or two).

The chaos emerging in Spain and Greece are obvious warning of what can happen to an economy that in unable to pay down the debt it has used to fuel its growth. The infinite growth that the current debt-economy relies upon is not guaranteed. Indeed, once you consider the fact we live in a world with a finite capacity to produce resources and absorb waste (seen through such thing as the impacts of climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, etc) continued infinite economic growth seems unlikely in the long term. Once growth is no longer sustainable, debt is no longer payable and the system that relies upon the debt-economy is in serious trouble.

That being said, I’m certainly no advocate of revolutionary upheaval.

An evolution towards resilient local economies that are food and energy dependent, however, would be IMHO a good thing to see.

I’m far from saying everything’s sweet.

But anything other than incremental improvement is wholesale murder.

So let’s think through our increments.

Without our interdependence we’re talking of a die back from 7 billion people to maybe 2 billion.

I think it’s time you get over yourself and realise that you’re living in a community which, for all its flaws, is doing better than most.

From there it would be helpful for your fellow citizens if you tried playing the game we’re playing rather than telling us how awesome another game would be if only you’d finish writing the rules.

We are interdependent on each other in ways unimaginable to even our grandparents.

For example in 1912 a steam train was a pretty snazzy piece of kit, but most intelligent people could take a good shot at building one from scratch in a lifetime if they had to.

You, nor I, could no sooner re-invent the smartphone than fly to the moon. We couldn’t even make the glass screen on a smartphone in our whole lives. The techs at corning who make that glass couldn’t make it on their own starting from scratch. We need each other, and systems to mediate that reliance, in ways we’ve never had before. And yet more people are leading better lives than ever before. (Yes there is more that should and can be done)

Trashing the system and starting over would be catastrophically murderous. The dislocations (which killed millions) the communists suffered as they tried to transition from market based capitalism would be nothing compared to what would happen today.

So, if I may be so bold, constructive suggestions to improve the society we live in are a lot more likely to fly.

I tend to agree JB.

Nonetheless, in my darker moments, I do tend to wonder whether the system we have created has us all rushing towards an inevitable precipice that will see the very catastrophe you warn Truthiness against.

Your comments about how interdependent we are, are in some ways quite scary. We are entirely dependent on the system operating without hiccup, yet in some ways it is quite fragile. When you consider the role debt plays in money creation and wealth production, and the fact that the continual issuance of debt depends on infinite future economic growth for that debt to be paid down, it is a bit worrying to contemplate that many of our economic activities are unsustainable and could hit a wall sometime relatively soon (within a lifetime or two).

The chaos emerging in Spain and Greece are obvious warning of what can happen to an economy that in unable to pay down the debt it has used to fuel its growth. The infinite growth that the current debt-economy relies upon is not guaranteed. Indeed, once you consider the fact we live in a world with a finite capacity to produce resources and absorb waste (seen through such thing as the impacts of climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, etc) continued infinite economic growth seems unlikely in the long term. Once growth is no longer sustainable, debt is no longer payable and the system that relies upon the debt-economy is in serious trouble.

That being said, I’m certainly no advocate of revolutionary upheaval.

An evolution towards resilient local economies that are food and energy dependent, however, would be IMHO a good thing to see.

I think it’s time you get over yourself and realise that you’re living in a community which, for all its flaws, is doing better than most.

From there it would be helpful for your fellow citizens if you tried playing the game we’re playing rather than telling us how awesome another game would be if only you’d finish writing the rules.

We are interdependent on each other in ways unimaginable to even our grandparents.

For example in 1912 a steam train was a pretty snazzy piece of kit, but most intelligent people could take a good shot at building one from scratch in a lifetime if they had to.

You, nor I, could no sooner re-invent the smartphone than fly to the moon. We couldn’t even make the glass screen on a smartphone in our whole lives. The techs at corning who make that glass couldn’t make it on their own starting from scratch. We need each other, and systems to mediate that reliance, in ways we’ve never had before. And yet more people are leading better lives than ever before. (Yes there is more that should and can be done)

Trashing the system and starting over would be catastrophically murderous. The dislocations (which killed millions) the communists suffered as they tried to transition from market based capitalism would be nothing compared to what would happen today.

So, if I may be so bold, constructive suggestions to improve the society we live in are a lot more likely to fly.

I think it’s time you get over yourself and realise that you’re living in a community which, for all its flaws, is doing better than most.

From there it would be helpful for your fellow citizens if you tried playing the game we’re playing rather than telling us how awesome another game would be if only you’d finish writing the rules.

We are interdependent on each other in ways unimaginable to even our grandparents.

For example in 1912 a steam train was a pretty snazzy piece of kit, but most intelligent people could take a good shot at building one from scratch in a lifetime if they had to.

You, nor I, could no sooner re-invent the smartphone than fly to the moon. We couldn’t even make the glass screen on a smartphone in our whole lives. The techs at corning who make that glass couldn’t make it on their own starting from scratch. We need each other, and systems to mediate that reliance, in ways we’ve never had before. And yet more people are leading better lives than ever before. (Yes there is more that should and can be done)

Trashing the system and starting over would be catastrophically murderous. The dislocations (which killed millions) the communists suffered as they tried to transition from market based capitalism would be nothing compared to what would happen today.

So, if I may be so bold, constructive suggestions to improve the society we live in are a lot more likely to fly.

“police drone aircraft” I can’t see any way that could go wrong. *shudders*

The rest of it seems like “the landscaping party”, a couple of new gazebos, some nice shrubbery and a few fish for the pond.

Don’t get me wrong, biodiversity and gay marriage are important, and it all looks better than the head on collision that is labs n libs, but the greens are still far too conservative, capitalist and statist for my tastes.

The underlying foundations of our society are unsustainable, we need to take bold steps to ween ourselves off our addiction to consumption. This all feels like window dressing and green washing, maybe its just the first steps, and maybe they’re taking it easy on a skittish public, but I would like to see much bigger changes, and soon.